Wellness

Some say The Steady Collective, Firestorm Books and Coffee, Kairos West Community Center and 12 Baskets Café have reduced the area’s safety by offering services to drug users and homeless clients. The Asheville Police Department has claimed that the number of complaints filed in the neighborhood — including drug use, trespassing and syringes discarded on a nearby playground — have risen dramatically in recent months.

Two local agencies, the Needle Exchange Program of Asheville and The Steady Collective, provide clean needles and other supplies to help reduce the negative health effects of habitual drug use in Western North Carolina. Now Buncombe County is considering starting a program of its own to combat an increase in diseases transmitted by reusing and sharing needles.

Are you a fan of health and wellness advice? If so, you may want to check out Dr. Gus Vickery’s new book, which shares his prescription for attaining and maintaining health. We’ve got the details, along with a roundup of other local health news, in this edition of Health Briefs from our issue of Aug. 1, 2018.

Family members who depend on Heritage Adult Day Retreat in Burnsville to provide a safe, stimulating daytime environment for loved ones with disabilities and dementia face a potential interruption or closure of the resource. With state funding for adult day care flat and the need continuing to grow, 40 similar programs have closed across the state since 2007.

When it comes to hair, Asheville is “anything goes,” says Jami Redlinger, Best of WNC Hall of Famer for Hairstylist and co-owner of The Middy. But beneath that diversity, she explains, is a unifying theme: self-expression. “I feel like there’s a lot of really creative people here, so people want to get really creative with their hair, too.”

Since Caiyalynn Burrell’s tragic death from an overdose in 2014, agencies from across the region and the state have come together to find new ways to help children and teens in crisis receive the help they need. The Caiyalynn Burrell Child Crisis Center is now open at 277 Biltmore Ave. in Asheville to respond to psychiatric crises in a supportive, holistic and peaceful environment that also helps patients connect to community resources throughout their treatment and recovery.

Sylvan Sport founder Tom Dempsey says the inspiration for his company’s adventure camping trailers comes from spending time outdoors — and there’s no better place to find inspiration than this area. “We couldn’t do what we do anywhere else,” he says.

Despite their importance to the region’s economy, migrant farmworkers in WNC often labor in conditions that make obtaining health services difficult or impossible. Some dedicated advocacy organizations and health care providers fill the gap with mobile services that take care directly to farmworkers who would otherwise go without.

Horticulture therapy helps people of all ages learn life skills as well as recover from mental and physical challenges. Hendersonville’s Bullington Gardens are home to the BOOST gardening program, which helps special needs students cultivate skills and develop self-confidence.

In the midst of a crisis of opioid addiction and overdoses, patients and doctors alike are seeking out alternatives to opioid medication for relieving pain. Ranging from medicinal herbs to acupuncture to biofeedback, options abound — offering both hope and a bewildering array of choices.

Local health and wellness news this week includes preparations for Our VOICE’s upcoming Walk a Mile event and fundraiser, a workshop on end-of-life planning, a big donation to promote safety for women and children and a new membership model available at an Asheville urgent care clinic.

A lack of planning for long-term health care has left many Asheville seniors and their families unprepared to meet end-of-life medical needs. But local experts in advance planning say there are many resources available to help with such planning and suggest starting as early as possible.